plume is dirty brown, about half the length of the male's 

 and nearly straight. 



Nest and Eggs The nest consists of a depression in 

 the ground carefully hid away in some bunch of grass or 

 brush, and usually contains from fifteen to twenty very 

 light buff or white eggs, often faintly speckled. 



Measurements Length, eight to nine inches; wing, 

 4y 2 ; tail, 4; bill, %. 



THE GAMBEL QUAIL 

 (Lophortyx gambeli) 



The gambel partridge occupies a unique position in its 

 common nomenclature. In California it is known as the 

 Arizona quail, while the sportsmen of Arizona refer to 

 it as the California quail. In this, too, they both have 

 good reasons for the names used, for these birds are 

 found on both sides of the Colorado river, that is in 

 both Arizona and California. Commencing in the Mex- 

 ican state of Sonora, where they are found from the 

 western slope of the Sierra Madre mountains to the 

 Gulf of California, the range of the species extends 

 northward and eastward through western Arizona, and, 

 crossing the Colorado river onto the desert of the same 

 name, passes through southeastern California into 

 southern and central Nevada and Utah. The gambel 

 quail belongs to the same genus as the two species of 

 the California valley quail and in general appearance 

 resembles them. 



The gambel quail is emphatically a desert bird, able 

 to live through the long, dry seasons without water. If 

 there are any trees in its neighborhood it will seek 

 them for roosting purposes, but it is found distributed 

 over vast sections where even the smallest brush is 

 very scattering and under cover nearly quite if not 

 entirely absent, yet in such places this member of the 

 resourceful blue quail family protects itself from hawks 

 and predatory animals with an astonishing success. 

 The gambel quail is a true runner and can develop an 

 astonishing speed for so small a bird. A very large part 

 of the unwarranted reputation of the California valley 

 quail as a runner is derived from confounding it with 

 the gambel and the habit of the Arizona sportsmen of 

 calling the gambel the California quail, but even as 

 great runners as the gambel quail are, I have found 

 them to lie well to the dog in the heavy bunch-grass 

 sections of southeastern California and southern Ne- 

 vada. I have also had fine sport with them along the 

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